Clinical, Biochemical and Epigenetic Profile of Pediatric Behçet Disease: Similarities and Differences From Adult Patients and Looking for Potential Biomarkers.
Behçet disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder with a relapsing-remitting course. Pediatric-onset BD is rare and characterized by marked clinical heterogeneity, frequent incomplete presentation at disease onset, and limited availability of pediatric-specific outcome measures and biomarkers. This prospective multicenter study aims to comprehensively characterize the clinical, biochemical, genetic, and epigenetic profiles of pediatric patients with Behçet disease and to compare them with adult BD patients and healthy pediatric controls. The study focuses on the identification of disease-associated cytokine patterns, circulating microRNA profiles, DNA methylation signatures, and genetic variants associated with monogenic autoinflammatory diseases presenting with a Behçet-like phenotype. By integrating clinical data with multi-omic analyses, this study seeks to identify biologically and clinically meaningful patient subgroups, improve disease stratification, and explore potential biomarkers of disease activity and remission in pediatric Behçet disease.
• BD diagnosis according to at least one of the three sets of classification criteria \[International Criteria for Behçet's Disease (ICBD), International Study Group (ISG) and Pediatric Behçet's disease criteria PEDBD)\];
• Age 6 months to 70 years old.
• Written informed consent from appropriate legal representative(s), and assent from patients who have not reached the age of consent.